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AppGameKit/AppGameKit Studio Showcase / Galactia - first release candidate (and c++ source code!)

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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2020 21:59 Edited at: 12th Nov 2020 20:59
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This is my top down space shooter game Galactia! Now featuring public domain assets (I had previously used sprites downloaded from a "free assets" website that apparently were copies / ripped from another game I had never heard of).

PC download is attached to the post.

It's mainly intended for portrait mode on mobile devices, so on PC it plays with a 9:16 display aspect.

Waves are endless as they are procedurally generated, with each wave bringing a faster enemy spawn rate, more asteroids, faster moving (and shooting) enemy ships, and more ammo when you grab powerups. It starts out pretty slow and tame but ramps up as you progress and then eventually the mayhem becomes too much to survive, and the goal of course is to reach a higher wave / higher score.

So far there are bosses at the end of the 5th, 10th and 15th wave.

I have experimented with different control methods and found the virtual buttons for left/right, weapon selection and weapon firing work the best. However I may decide to add an options menu where you could potentially select different control methods (as suggested by BitBitBit to maybe use tilt/gyro controls, or touch anywhere firing).

Source code is also included with the download so feel free to check it out (critique is welcomed as well!)

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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2020 03:13 Edited at: 3rd Nov 2020 03:56
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Galactia rocks hard. i obviously skipped through what you'd written in the first post as i tend to "just dive in" but just as i was thinking, "man, is there a Boss in this game?" i met the gorgeous Thing

and, i was glad to hear the wormhole tune here, as well as the rest. your game music choices are appreciated.

meanwhile, i'd added "touch anywhere" to move left/right in P3 and i think it works well for games like these on mobile/html.

which reminds me... do you have an itch page (yet)?

add a couple thoughts. 1) if you're gonna leave enemy shots in place after a wave, leave power-ups, too 2) let [fire] = Continue vs having to go to the mouse to press the button.

2 more, now that i've played a bit more. 1) pressing LMB during the Wave tally does something odd (screen washes & mouse pointer "spins" (reminded me of windows "not responding" screen)). 2) i need someplace to keep my high score other than my note pad
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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2020 04:35 Edited at: 3rd Nov 2020 04:43
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Thanks for the feedback. Several of the tunes are my own creations and a few of them are from downloaded asset packs. Yes I have an itch page Squishmobile.

I am not sure what you mean by leaving enemy shots in place after a wave? Everything should fade out between waves, although leaving power ups is not a bad idea. Fire to continue makes sense as well!

I tried pressed LMB a few times during the tally and you're right it causes a freeze up! I am pretty sure it has to do with the series of inner for-loops.. I noticed a problem with while loops also, the AppGameKit engine doesn't like it, android will show an "app stopped responding" message during a long enough loop (and apparently window will too), and you can't process any type of input in a while loop either... I may look at calling those tally loops in a series of separate calls that return control back to the main app::loop() function in between to see if will stop complaining.
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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2020 04:53 Edited at: 3rd Nov 2020 05:21
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Quote: " leaving enemy shots in place after a wave?"


circled in red. they're there when the scoring is done and play restarts (and they do "hurt" if we run into them after Continue).

Quote: "LMB during the tally "

a little research: moving the mouse over where the Continue button WILL be (before it appears/while scoring) causes "flicker". if i Click/LMB where the button WILL be, it hangs with "not responding". it's recoverable and easily repeatable (discovered because i'm impatient and was trying to continue before scoring was complete).

new ??: so, i had no ammo left mid-Boss. only 2 things left to do, neither much fun. meanwhile, the boss does run into lots of asteroids, destroying them but doing no harm to itself? how about letting those asteroids drop a few rounds on destruction? or, something else a bit more fun that exiting. perhaps have the boss pause on "no ammo", laugh and charge me without mercy. would still be "fun" for the player
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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2020 15:02 Edited at: 3rd Nov 2020 16:52
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Hmm thanks for all the testing! It turns out that with a last minute change I made to clear seeker missile particles during the tally I accidentally removed the clearing of enemy bullets! I fixed the issue and updated the ZIP file. I also bumped up the drop rate for basic ammo and dual green ammo by 1% each but I may need to implement something better like you're suggesting, as with a string of bad luck or a heavy trigger finger the player can still run out of ammo. Perhaps the basic ammo should be infinite quantity and it should only limit ammo for the rest of the weapons?
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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 5th Nov 2020 00:30
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Updated the original post with the latest version.

Change log:

- high score is now saved to a file and displayed on the title screen
- you can now continue to the next wave by pressing the [fire] key instead of requiring the mouse
- auto-switching to picked up weapons now only switches to more powerful ones
- fixed the rotating "ion-cannon" type ship was not spawning at all previously (you will know when you see it)
- solved non-responsiveness during end of wave tally (by breaking up the function into several calls and returning to the main app::Loop() function in between)
- made several improvements to the source code including optimizing the main functions that control bullets, enemy ships, and asteroids
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Lupo4mica37
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Posted: 5th Nov 2020 00:45
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Really nice work JonEnstrom. I want to suggest something to you. That big spaceship appears to be too synthetic for a spaceship, I mean it's movement. The other space ships and asteroid have some kind of rotation, but this space ship doesn't blend in very well with the reality of the rest. It really stands out as though it was from another universe, but maybe that is what you wanted it to be. All the best with the progress on this one.
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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 5th Nov 2020 03:16
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You're absolutely right and I am not completely happy with the movement of the boss ships. Part of the boss pathing code involves moving closer to the player as the health drops, but it's far too "bouncy" and certainly needs some attention. I'll be working on that issue in the next few days!
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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 6th Nov 2020 16:09 Edited at: 6th Nov 2020 16:11
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nice update, JE.

the ammo is now plentiful but perhaps too much so? while i used to pay close attention to managing my weapons, i'm now allowed to be a bit frivolous and finding myself missing the management aspect, and facing the boss without fear. there's a balance in there, somewhere.

with that, could auto-switching be an option? i'm regularly hitting the 1 key, now.

otherwise, appreciating window mode and the new enemies. i've given some of them names like the new blue "dervish"," juggernaught", "steamroller", "lancer" and the "javelin" class ships, etc. i might end up writing a guide to the galaxy if you keep the source open

thanks for this, and looking forward to the next version.

oh, and:
Quote: "maybe 30th but pretty hard to survive that long"

when i have time, i'll take that challenge!
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MadBit
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Posted: 7th Nov 2020 17:39
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Hey really cool.
At first I thought "another one of those shooting games".
But because of the limited ammunition this is going to be very interesting.
It also doesn't have the heckling like some other shoot'em ups.
But as Virtual Nomad said, the ammo could actually be lowered a bit.
The first time I played it I ran out of ammo in the boss because I didn't expect it to be limited.

I don't know if I saw that correctly. But as it looked like you get points for shots fired.
I find it rather unsuitable. Then maybe 'Bullet Accuracy' as multiplier. If that is not already the case.

Keep it up. I am looking forward to the next update.
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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 8th Nov 2020 00:45 Edited at: 8th Nov 2020 00:49
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Thanks for the feedback. Regarding the ammo I may need to do something different than a straight drop percentage (maybe fluctuate to higher drop chance as you get lower on ammo or something similar). The problem is sometimes you get tons and sometimes it gets dangerously low. If you get an unlucky streak where the drops are only non-ammo drops then things start to get dicey. I need to find a good balance where you still have to manage ammo but don't end up without any left after a bad streak of luck.

Currently you do get points at the end of the wave for shots fired, and then more points for shots connected, but you're right a multiplier based on the accuracy would be good, I will consider how to score more effectively (I am also considering a score multiplier for the difficulty level you choose to play on)

In the meantime I have updated the original post download with the following changes:

- new powerup item "reflector shield" which reflects enemy bullets for 15 seconds
- two additional "rotating ion cannon" type enemies with high damage but very low health
- for impatient folks you can speed up the end of wave tally by holding the fire button or pressing anywhere on the screen
- difficulty options (easy, normal, hard) adjusts enemy spawn rate, enemy weapon damage, and enemy speeds
- asteroid options (off, normal, extra)
- auto switch weapons options (never, upgrades only, always)
- music and sound options (off, on, sound only, music only)
- screen mode options (full screen, windowed mode)
- improved the overall look of enemy ship thrusters and added two additional color schemes of thrusters (randomly chosen when ships spawn)
- changed the stars background to one I think looks better and made the background scrolling speed up as you progress
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MadBit
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Posted: 8th Nov 2020 06:17
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Um, I don't know if it's just me. But the Main Menu does not disappear!
Neither when setting the options, displaying the control screen nor in the game.
When setting the options, the labels are missing, too.

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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 8th Nov 2020 16:09
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Just checked and I am not getting that behavior at all, anybody else can confirm?
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MadBit
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Posted: 8th Nov 2020 17:50
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Now for the second time everything was ok.
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Richard Stevens
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Posted: 8th Nov 2020 19:46 Edited at: 8th Nov 2020 19:47
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I like it.

One thing I did notice is that if I went into controls, and then started the game, the controls screen stayed up, obscuring the view.

Personally, I'd ramp up the difficulty. I was finding it too easy to maintain attention, but I guess thats a subjective thing.
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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 8th Nov 2020 23:37
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Ah thank you! There was a bug with the controls display, that must also be what MadBit was seeing. I fixed it now. The difficulty ramps up fairly quick but yes it starts out super easy. If you have played COD Zombies you could relate it to how round one is always extremely easy, with few spawns at slow speed and easy to kill. Even if you made it to a really high round last game, you always start back at ultra easy round 1 when you go again.
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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 9th Nov 2020 04:26 Edited at: 9th Nov 2020 06:16
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at 20+ it can be total mayhem (in a great way). the ammo count felt pretty good when it mattered and i definitely had to swap weaps so thanks for bringing that element back into play.

my only gripe was: during said mayhem, the yellow scoring/text was a wall of spam, almost completely obscuring the bottom 1/4 of the screen. an extra obstacle that i could live with? yes. but,setting the fade rate based upon active text/objects might help?

meanwhile, since Fire = Continue , i couldn't "analyze" Game Over. i wanted to be able to step back and see what was going on/had happened so, perhaps, disallow Fire = Continue @ game over (or freeze/fade it over time)? i just wanted to see the status of the final battlefield vs going straight to the menu:



if i can get to level 30 @ normal mode, i'll see what hard mode offers i MIGHT cut down on the Asteroid count before then.

otherwise, "remember" (restored) window setting would be nice, give the window a title and an icon, and, @ level 10/20/etc, i want to HEAR from GALACTIA (i've decided that G's a Being)
think Angry Gorf? there's a "how to" link in this infected machine post which also has a short "sound pack" i put together based on the vid for inspiration

good stuff, Jon! where were you in the 80s? i could have saved sooooo many quarters with Galactia as an option (or, fed said quarters into it, at least ).

thanks again.

ADD Confirming options takes window from maximized to restored state and Asteroids <none> isn't working.
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Lupo4mica37
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Posted: 10th Nov 2020 23:24
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Thank you for the updates JonEnstrom. Another thing that could enhance the visual of this game is animation of the spaceships themselves, like banking to the starboard or port. Tilting effect. I do not assume you are an artist to make that possible, but that would make the actual movement sideways even more realistic, same with the roatations of the asteroids to be in all axis. I know this is a 2D game, but with 3D aspects that would put it to anoter level in my opinion. Still it is really interesting shooter, really trippy.
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tiresius
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Posted: 12th Nov 2020 04:25
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I see a lot of art used from the game Star Sector, by Fractal Softworks. You should probably either use free public domain art, make your own, or buy a package of art somewhere to use in your game.
Even if you're not making $$ on it, it is still not legal.
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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 12th Nov 2020 13:53
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Quote: "I see a lot of art used from the game Star Sector, by Fractal Softworks."

i've tried to match some of the space ship graphics here with those on http://fractalsoftworks.com/ and, while obviously similar, i could not confirm the graphics are Star Sector's (there is TONS of media there and their Mod Forums, etc). can you offer an example of identical graphics found there?

i've also done a quick search and see similar ship graphics offered in various sprite packs online that may be freely usable, as well.

for now, i've removed the download from the first post out of caution, pending response from JonEnstrom where no source or license info for the graphics is offered in the zip.

i've also sent email to Fractal Softworks seeking confirmation, either way.
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Posted: 12th Nov 2020 21:57 Edited at: 12th Nov 2020 22:28
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Fractal Softworks has responded that the Artwork is theirs and that they have not granted permission to use it.

I'm Unlocking this thread to allow Jon to replace the Artwork and (hopefully) continue the project if they choose to do so where i don't believe they intended to use the Artwork improperly.

But, we should all take this instance as a reminder to make sure we have the Right to use media we find, apply due diligence, there, and retain any license information that comes with it (if there is none, it's probably a bad sign).

@tiresius, thanks for letting us know about the original graphics. As stated, i dont believe it was intentional. While Jon's relatively new, he's been upstanding thus far.

Meanwhile, while the IP owner thanked me for taking the matter seriously, you are due that appreciation, from all of us.
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JonEnstrom
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Posted: 12th Nov 2020 23:11 Edited at: 13th Nov 2020 00:04
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I also appreciate the heads up on this, as I mention in the edited original post I do download "free assets" from all types of sites which are usually "free for personal use" and "no credit required" downloads.

I have since discovered that I got some of the graphics in question from a site called pngegg.com and although it says "License: Non-commercial use" obviously it's not. After more checking I see they also have tons of Nintendo IP, Street Fighter IP and more.

Even though I am only a "hobby" type programmer without plans to sell any software it is still my responsibility to make sure the assets are indeed public domain and I obviously dropped the ball on that responsibility. That said, I have switched out the sprites in question for different ones and I have attached the new version of the game to the original post. Update will be submitted to the play store as well, link will be posted when approved.

Please pardon minor glitches with the new sprites until I get them sorted (size issues, facing wrong direction, thrusters at wrong offsets)
The new version includes a few other changes as well:

- new boss introduced at wave 15
- new fireball powerup/weapon drop. High damage seeker projectiles that overrides all other weapons until used up (can't be "saved" for later use)
- adjusted the boss movement functionality, although still some tweaking to be done
- now shows a statistics tally for the entire game played when you lose your last life (game over)
- fixed "asteroids off" option to work properly
- fixed full screen/window mode functionality to stop maximizing/restoring window
- source code fully reorganized to separate class headers and files

Planned future changes:

- one more boss at level 20
- improve the powerup message system to avoid spamming the window full of text when picking up many in a row
- love the suggestion for adding voice feedback during the game, will explore this idea
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tiresius
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Posted: 12th Nov 2020 23:50
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It's sad that other people distribute these assets as "free" on the internet and then independent developers like us get caught up in it. Looking forward to new version it looks like a fun game.
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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 13th Nov 2020 04:30
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fireballs rock another nice update.
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